So, how on Earth to start this story? First, I want to say, I'm sorry to anyone that has a rat phobia. I do realize that some people have an extreme aversion to them (maybe similar to the one I have towards certain bugs that will go unnamed?). That said, I hope this post might open your eyes to an animal that is, for the most part, very different than his wild counterpart: Pet Rats!
So this is how it all went down. : )
First some background: As you might know from reading this blog, we are a family of allergy sufferers. Like bad allergies. Campbell really has the mildest allergies with Cooper having the worst. Mine and Ethan's are off the charts, too, but I think that since we're older, we've built up a bit of an immunity to a lot of things. As far as animals go though, Ethan can't be in the same room with a cat or his throat closes up (asthma) and his eyes get super red and itchy. I can't touch most animals or be in a home where the animals have been all over the furniture, etc. If I touch one, I have to wash my hands pretty immediately or I start itching and develop rashes.
Fun times right?! When our dog Sherpa passed away last year, we had kind of written off owning another animal. She was a very non-needy dog and we kept her in one room in the house and outside otherwise. We really didn't get to touch her a lot. We had her for many years and she was very happy, but in the end, we felt bad that we couldn't interact with her much (we got her way before we had kids).
Well, Ethan comes to me a month or so ago and starts telling me he's been googling hypo-allergenic dogs. This surprises me because he's the last person I would think would want another animal to take care of. We soon decide that there really aren't any hypo-allergenic dogs when it really comes down to it. It's the dander we're allergic to (their spit!)
So then he tells me that rabbits are hypo-allergenic! And that his work friend has a rabbit and his boys are in love with it. But it's done a helluva lot of damage to their home chewing on everything. Even with that said, we decide to check out the bunnies last Friday (on our date night.. romantic I know) at PetSmart. I'm of course all giddy at the idea of putting a bunny in an Easter Basket for Easter (ha).
So we get there and this lovely worker starts talking to us. We ask her about rabbits as pets for kids and she was like "well, I don't know about bunnies, but rats make really great pets!" (Cue Ethan and Danielle exchanging looks of disbelief and slight disgust. I have to include a little background here: Ethan actually has a phobia of rats having eliminated dozens of rats from our crawl space and one giant one from our attic. mmmhmmm. Stay with me here.)
So the PetSmart staff member is chatting us up! She starts talking about all of her own rats and their names and how they all come running to her when they hear her walk in the door from work. How they do tricks and are super friendly and social and come to the sound of their name! This girl is in love with her rats.
We're totally enchanted by her stories. We're hooked line and sinker!
So she takes us over to the rats and lets us hold a white one with red eyes. We're amazed at how cute they are (although Ethan is still having a hard time getting over that tail.) So, she lets me hold him first (it's a male and let me tell you, when those babies aren't neutered, there's a whole lotta ball hangin' out. Just sayin'. It ain't pretty. Just a bit of honesty there. But other than that, he's super cute.) Here's a white one so you can see:
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Anyhoo...
He snuggles up right into my arm.. burrows into the bend of my arm on the inside there. Super cute! Seems a bit scared, but totally fine.
Now it's Ethan's turn. Remember the phobia thing. Well, all is going well, til he poops on him. Which isn't too big of a deal. It's small pellet poop. But then...
The rat decides to crawl up in the inside of Ethan's long sleeve shirt (work shirt) and...
he. gets. STUCK.
I'm not sure who was freaking out more, the rat or Ethan but holy shit it was hilarious. (pardon my potty mouth) I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my eyes. Almost sobbing. IT. WAS. INSANELY. AWESOME. (ok, maybe just for me.)
The whole time he's stuck in his shirt, he's pooping, too. (add insult to injury, fella!)
Well, finally the PetSmart gal gets the rat out. Ethan is pretty shakin' up, but really thinks the rats are pretty darn cute. (even after all that!)
So, we go get dessert and I go on and on about how smitten I am with the rats.
The next day, we go "just to look" at the rats at another PetSmart with the boys. We tell them we're gonna wait til after we sell our house (we want to put the house on the market soon and Ethan was afraid a rat might deter buyers. haha.)
Well, long story short (too late I know) we end up coming home with Ramona! Even though I had my heart set on a white one, Ramona had the most amazing disposition. She was SO friendly and just totally at home with us. After some jumping up and down and pleading (from the boys and I) I convinced Ethan to do the first impulsive thing in his life (he's a conservative guy) and buy the rat!
We waited to see how Cooper did with her, to make sure he wasn't allergic to her. After holding the other rat the night before, I was proud to report that I had hardly any itching on my skin. Cooper hasn't either. We are pretty dilligent about washing our hands after we hold her. I do notice that I itch if I don't wash, but the severity of it has like 20% of what I get with other animals. If that.
We've had the best time with her. It's only been four days but she totally feels like a part of the family.
Here are some things we've learned so far:
- You have to spend lots of time with your rat to "socialize" her. Luckily, you can tell that the staff at PetSmart handled Ramona a lot because she's so at ease with humans. From what I've read, this is one of the single most important things. We try to spend at least 30 minutes with her a day, all four of us, holding and playing with her.
- She will bite your finger if you stick it through her cage. Yep, that seems like a no-brainer: Don't stick your finger through the cage or she'll think it's food. Unfortunately the boys have a hard time not dangling their fingers in there. Cooper has a bandaid on his finger to prove it. Other than that, she doesn't bite at all.
- It's nice having a girl. No huge gross balls. (I said it.)
- Her tail isn't so bad. You get past it after a while. And it's the cutest thing when she cleans it. She holds it and cleans from the bottom all the way to the end!
- Rats are constantly cleaning themselves, kinda like cats. They are clean animals. (the pet rats of course.) Here's Ramona cleaning herself:
- She loves kale and long slices of baby carrots. It is the absolute cutest thing to watch her hold her food and eat it.
- They only live 2-3 years which is kind of sad.
- They are cheap and not that big of an investment. Our's was around $15. Then there's the cage (a bit pricey) and food, etc. But overall, not too huge of an investment.
- They are naturally nocturnal animals, but apparently they get on your schedule. But you can tell they are much more hyper at night which explains the nocturnal thing.
We had thought about getting another female friend for her because we heard they really need friends, but then I read that you shouldn't introduce another one later on because your rat might find that threatening. In other words: if you're going to have two, then have two from the beginning. At this point we're just not ready for two, so hopefully us spending lots of time with her will be good enough.
Do you keep rats? Please tell me about your experiences! Ever since we told friends and family we got a pet rat (she's a Dumbo Rat by the way), I've been so surprised to hear so many stories of people owning rats! I had no idea.
I've got another rat post coming next all about famous rats. ; )
I do promise this that blog won't become rat-obsessed. You can breathe easy.
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